Free The Bridge by Karen Kingsbury

tears, before she might’ve fallen apart. Between that and knowing with all certainty that she’d never see him again, Molly found a strength she hadn’t thought herself capable of. It allowed her to go home and face her parents—something she hadn’t been sure she could do.
    The conversation with her father was short and to the point.
    Her dad picked her up at the airport, and before they had her bags in the hired Town Car, he was telling her about meetings for the following day and the method of grooming and why it was important that she spend time watching him work so she’d know what was waiting for her ten years down the road.
    Molly let him talk until they reached their gated home in Pacific Heights. When the driver let them out, she faced her father. “Stop.”
    “. . . which is why we have two meetings tomorrow afternoon, the first with . . .” Her father blinked and seemed to register what she’d said. “Stop?”
    “Yes.” Her heart raced, but there was no turning back. “Here’s how it will be. You need to know, because this is the last time I’m going to tell you.”
    He was quiet for the first time since Molly could remember.
    “Okay.” She smiled to cover up the fact that she was shaking. “I’m not ever going to be CEO of your corporation. But I have a deal for you.”
    Her dad looked like he might yell or fly into a dissertation about how she wasn’t being rational. But again he remained silent.
    “I’ll run the charitable branch of your business. We’ll help all kinds of people and make a difference in our community. But I will not now nor ever sit at the head of your board.”
    “You’re saying . . . you want Preston to have the job?”
    Molly knew what her dad was thinking. If she and Preston married, what difference did it make who was running the company? The business would still be in family hands. She made a hurried decision not todrop that bombshell at the same time. “Okay, yes. That’s what I’m saying. I want Preston to run it.”
    He made a face. “And you’ll run the charitable foundation?” He looked baffled, as if she might be certifiably insane to walk away from such an opportunity. “I don’t have a charitable foundation.”
    She smiled at him again. “Exactly.” Before her father could say another word, she turned around and grabbed two of her bags. “I’ll meet you in the house.”
    That was that. He tried again later that day and the next and three times a week from then out. Molly held her ground.
    Her conversation with Preston Millington was equally brief.
    They grabbed coffee on the waterfront the next day, and from the moment he picked her up, she could do nothing but compare him to Ryan. He wasn’t funny, and he didn’t make her heart beat faster when they were together. He smelled nice, but the whole drive, he asked only a couple of questions about her. Otherwise, he was content to talk about his education, the near completion of his MBA, and his dreams for her father’s corporation. He was fit and incredibly handsome, much more mature thanhis twenty-four years. He wore business pants and a starched white button-down, probably what her father had worn at his age. Most of that day she felt like she was talking to a one-dimensional model, fresh off the pages of GQ magazine.
    Very quickly, she laid out the situation. “I know we had plans at one point.” She took his hands in hers. “That was a long time ago. I’ve changed, Preston. I don’t see you that way.”
    Preston opened his mouth as if he might refute her, but he hesitated for a long time. “Well.” He sounded dazed. “I wasn’t expecting that.”
    “You’ll be okay, right?” Molly gave him a weak smile. “I mean, we’ve barely talked for two years. I sort of thought you’d probably moved on.”
    “No.” It was the most thoughtful Preston had looked the whole time Molly had known him. “A guy could never just . . . move on from you, Molly.”
    “Thanks.” She